1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recycling polluted scrap rubber tires previously stored in such places as stockpiles, landfills or dumps, and more particularly, to a process and apparatus for cleaning and reclaiming the reusable economic components thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some of the prior art methods which teach a process for comminution of scrap rubber tires require cryogenic treatment. Rubber tires are resilient and thus pose a difficulty in comminuting scrap rubber tires to smaller components. By freezing the tires, the rubber becomes brittle, allowing the tires to be crushed and separated. Such methods are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,990 issued May 31, 1977 to Lovette, Jr; U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,587 issued Dec. 23, 1980 to Letsch; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,647 issued Aug. 3, 1982, to McMillian et al. Such systems are inherently expensive since the tires must be frozen and then removed of the ice and water.
There are other processes known to separate the economic components of scrap rubber tires. One such process is by a using a magnetic screen to separate the metallic portions and an airstream is used to separate the fabric fibers leaving behind the rubber component described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,767 issued Jun. 9, 1992 to Allard et al. The patents of Rouse et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,560,112 and 4,714,201 teach methods of comminuting scrap metal tire into smaller pieces.
In the patent of Yen et al., there is an apparatus for waste tire treating in which the tires are grinded, washed, dried, granulated, heated, melted, and finally separating the molten rubber from the steel. The Yen apparatus is aimed at recovering the steel by-product from the waste tires while not polluting the environment by baking and heating the tire material in a closed furnace. The Yen patent does not address the problems associated with waste wash water from the waste tires as it will contain the pollutants that were in or on the tires. Additionally, the washing device is comprised of strong sprinklers which may not be economically efficient to clean the tires which have been stockpiled.
In the present invention, no heat is used, ensuring the input material will not produce toxic gas so the harmful elements in the input material cannot be released into the surrounding environment. The present invention is a contained system in which the all the waste products are laboratory tested and are properly disposed of according to the Environmental Protection Agency""s regulations.
These prior known processes do not address the problem of cleaning tires that are polluted from being stored in stockpiles, landfills or dumps. The prior art methods and apparatus describe ways to recycle tires which are used but do not teach a way to recycle tires which are dirty and contaminated from being stockpiled.
The subject invention is designed to handle any type of stockpiled polluted tire, which could include, but not limited to, landfills, dumps, super fund sites, hazardous waste sites or any other known type of sites. The disposal and by-product process will be able to take whole tires as well as shredded tires from existing stockpiles, landfills, and dumps.
For the most part, stockpiles were created over the years by tires being legally and illegally dumped at these sites and never removed due to limited by-product need and to high removal costs. To show the actual cost factor associated with these stockpiles, you need only to look at the present typical tipping fees associated with xe2x80x9cdumpingxe2x80x9d of used tires.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for reclaiming such polluted scrap tire components in an economically feasible manner while eliminating environmental hazards.
The invention will allow polluted tires from existing stockpiles, landfills and dumps to be properly and safely reclaimed into useable components of steel, fiber and crumb and mesh particles.
A further object of the invention is for safe and proper disposal of all stockpile tires regardless of the condition including removal of any non-acceptable levels of hydrocarbons and other contaminants by the present invention process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved process designed to process one million to five million tires annually or 3,800 to 19,000 tires daily.
To address the problem of surplus waste tires, the object of this invention is to process polluted scrap tires into clean, usable rubber material. The process and apparatus incorporates several washing and treating components, grinding devices, shredders, steel removal devices and testing stations to process the input material and ensure a clean, finished quality end product. All external sediment is removed from the material, collected, treated and disposed of safely and properly. No heat is used, ensuring the input material will not decompose or break down, and harmful elements in the input material will not be released into the surrounding environment. Laboratory testing of sediment will provide feedback on contaminants at specific supply sites and allow appropriate disposal of particulates and contaminated water.